


Lost In A Strange Place

by WitchyBee



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Away from Night Vale, Being Lost, Carlos' perfect hair, Cecil goes to jail, Cecil is a Dork, Fluff, M/M, Not the Sheriff's Secret Police, the world is odd to Cecil.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-15
Updated: 2013-11-15
Packaged: 2018-01-01 15:33:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1045595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchyBee/pseuds/WitchyBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While accompanying Carlos on a science-related trip away from Night Vale, Cecil gets lost in an unfamiliar city. He encounters a library, a dog park, and a friendly policeman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost In A Strange Place

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is simply me loving the notion of Cecil wandering around a regular city, completely out of his depth, and a lot of fluff on top of that.

Cecil didn’t understand why anyone would ever want to live in a place like this, where everyone made a point to politely ignore each other. They seemed so desperate to be accepted, yet feared and despised things outside of their own understanding. It was not a community at all. This was a city full of strangers.

Thank God his dear Carlos wasn’t like that. It’s why he ended up in Night Vale. If you belonged there, the town had a way of getting under your skin and guiding you home. But occasionally science demanded a brief foray into the unknown beyond their vast desert, and Cecil refused to let Carlos go alone. 

Right now his boyfriend was busy talking with other scientists about very important science stuff, which was totally okay. Sometimes couples needed to do things apart. Cecil got that, of course. He had his radio show, after all. Except that here, for some odd reason, every single radio station played only the weather. A little variety might be nice. What else would people cling to in the dark if not a comforting voice from the radio?

Cecil looked around at the unfamiliar streets and realized he’d been walking aimlessly for quite a while since leaving the hotel. Also, he was maybe a bit completely lost. Cecil focused his attention on the nearby shrubs and newspaper kiosks, hoping to spot a Sheriff’s Secret Policeman whom he could ask for directions, but then he remembered that there were no Sheriff’s Secret Police here. He suddenly felt very...exposed and unsafe.

Across the street was a public library, or at least that’s what the sign on the large building claimed it to be. The structure didn’t appear to have been set on fire recently. There were actual windows, which were not boarded up or barred or anything. The most puzzling detail by far, however, was that people entered and exited the “library” showing no signs of unspeakable terror, demonic possession, or even suicidal resignation. Cecil knew that, as a reporter, it was his duty to investigate these strange happenings, and thus he walked purposefully into the building.

He had to admit, this library was in much better condition than Night Vale’s library. For one thing, there were countless books; all genres of fiction, nonfiction, and so many biographies! It was a plethora of knowledge on every subject under the incomprehensible void of space! He stared, speechless, at the shelves of books that had not been municipally approved. Did no one understand the danger caused by such forbidden words?

“Are you all right, sir?” asked a woman sitting behind a desk. She’d been writing in a notebook, with a pen of all things, and the nameplate on her desk indicated that she was a librarian. 

Cecil didn’t reply. He instead did what any sane person would in this situation; he ran out the door and back into the bright, somewhat less frightening, afternoon. After putting some distance between himself and the library, Cecil stopped running. Of course, he still faced the dilemma of not knowing exactly where he was.

Nothing made sense here. How did anyone feel protected without the constant vigilance of the Sheriff’s Secret Police? How did they cope with the burden all those tempting dark secrets conveniently available to check out from the library? How did they even know what information was safe to know without a City Council telling them what they could know and what they must never know?

. . .

Oh look, there’s a dog park, and he definitely saw both dogs and people in it. There wasn’t a hooded figure anywhere in sight! Well, at least it was probably safe enough to approach this dog park.

He longed for Night Vale, to be among kind and familiar faces again. As much as he wanted at that moment to send Carlos a very pitiful text message and say he was lost and probably going mad, Cecil just couldn’t bear to interrupt his boyfriend’s science thing. He also conceded that Night Vale must’ve seemed pretty strange to Carlos at first, too.

Cecil decided he could go for a round of pointing at the sky and shouting in terror, but after a few minutes of this, people began forming a small crowd some distance away, looking nervous. They stared at him in confusion, then several onlookers pulled out their cell phones. Cecil stopped after the attention started to make him feel uncomfortable, and the crowd dispersed, all except a man who was either wearing some kind of uniform or just had a peculiar fashion sense.

“Sir,” the man said, “I’m Officer Daniels. What, uh...what exactly were you doing?”

“Hmm? Me?” Cecil asked. The man nodded. “Oh, I was just expressing my fear of the void. It’s a popular recreational activity where I come from. Wait, sorry, did you say you’re an officer?”

“Yes...I’m a police officer,” he answered slowly, staring at Cecil like he’d grown a second head, which he had not.

“Like the Sheriff’s Secret Police? Oh, this is fantastic news! I don’t really know where I am, and I mean that literally. I came here with my boyfriend, Carlos, but he’s somewhere doing science stuff and he said I should probably stay in the hotel room but, you know, I got kind of bored and decided to take a walk...and wow, your city is so weird!”

“Right...okay, sir, you’re gonna have to come with me,” the officer said. “You’ve been causing a public disturbance, and frankly, I have doubts about your mental state. Have you been drinking at all today, sir?”

“Nope. Just coffee.”

“Have you taken any drugs?”

“No,” Cecil answered. “Never.”

“And this...boyfriend of yours. Carlos, was it? Does he look after you?”

“Well, I think we look after each other. That’s what it means to love someone, right?”

“Sure...and what is his last name?”

Cecil thought about it, and laughed. “You know, I have absolutely no idea.”

. . .

It wasn’t long before Officer Daniels handcuffed him and put Cecil in the backseat of his patrol car. When they arrived at their destination, he was searched, despite insisting that he did not have wheat, wheat by-products, or anything else illegal in his possession. Finally, they allowed Cecil one phone call. There was only one person he wanted to call.

“Carlos?”

“Cecil? Is that you?” his boyfriend’s perfect voice responded. “Where are you? I got back to the hotel and you weren’t here. I’ve been so worried.”

“You were worried about...me?”

“Of course I was. Are you okay? Why didn’t you answer any of my calls?”

“I’m fine. Sorry, they took my phone, but they’re letting me call you now to...ask for money, I think?”

“Who are they, Cecil?” the scientist asked, sounding increasingly alarmed. “Where are you? Have you been kidnapped?”

“I...don’t think so,” Cecil replied. “I was lost, you know, and Officer Daniels gave me a ride, which was really nice of him, but I’m still not sure how to get back to the hotel from here.”

“Wait,” Carlos said after a brief silence. “Officer Daniels?”

“I know, right? I thought there was no Sheriff’s Secret Police outside of Night Vale.”

“No, Cecil, that’s…” Carlos sighed. It was an impressive sigh, equal parts resignation and amusement. “Cecil, are you in jail? Did they tell you to call me so I’ll come pick you up and pay your fine or something?”

“Yeah. How did you know? You’re so smart, my Carlos.”

Time passed. It did that here, usually in a linear way, if the clock was to be trusted. Eventually Cecil was released from what had definitely been the most boring detention in his whole life. His amazing and infinitely patient boyfriend waited for him. Cecil smiled, and even though Carlos tried to remain slightly annoyed, the truth was he felt only relief that something much worse hadn’t happened, so he smiled as well.

“This is the reason my hair is going gray before I’m even forty, you know that?” Carlos teased.

“Oh, don’t say such slanderous things about your beautiful hair,” Cecil told him very seriously. “Whether gray or black or blue or any color known or unknown, named and sold in paint stores or indescribable with our primitive human tongues, your hair would be perfect.”

Together, and not a moment too soon, they went home.


End file.
